Fresh move to engage BAPEX more in oil, gas explorations

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M Azizur Rahman
The energy ministry has taken a fresh initiative to extensively engage the state-owned BAPEX in oil and gas exploration activities to ease the country's looming gas scarcity in the years to come, official sources said.
"We have already asked the Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Ltd (BAPEX) to submit a detailed and time-bound work plan focusing more on future oil and gas exploration works," a senior energy ministry official told the FE Sunday.
The Chief Adviser, who is also in-charge of the energy ministry, is very much interested to strengthen the BAPEX's working capacity, said the official.
He said the state-run oil and gas exploration company was also instructed to prepare the plan under three-pronged timeframe to expedite its implementation under short, middle and long-term targets.
The energy ministry's latest plan to strengthen BAPEX's working capacity came at a time when the country is reeling under a gas supply crunch caused from acute gas crisis across the country.
Currently the country's total gas production capacity is hovering around 1700 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) with a shortfall of around 100 mmcfd in demand.
According to Petrobangla statistics if new gas fields are not explored, the country's proven reserve of 8.39 TCF gas is set to exhaust by 2011.
If proven and probable reserves of around 14.4 TCF are taken together, the country's gas stock will be emptied by 2015, the report pointed out.
After 2015, the country will require new reserves to meet the growing demand.
The work-plan to be submitted by BAPEX would be sent to the Chief Adviser through the energy ministry for consideration, the ministry official said.
The previous government also took similar initiative to enhance BAPEX's efficiency in the wake of gas crisis.
But the plan submitted by the BAPEX was not specific with regards to exploration activities. Rather it dealt with some general issues like enhancement of gas price for BAPEX's gas fields, issues of rig purchase, recruitment of manpower and enhancement of salary of its employees.
This time the BAPEX has been asked to submit the plan concentrating more on future gas exploration activities so that new gas field are discovered and more gas produced, the energy ministry official said.
He said the government might allocate necessary funds to BAPEX to conduct necessary exploration works after evaluating its work plan.
Sources said, BAPEX was given approval by the previous government as an exploration and production company in February 2000 and subsequently got the ownership of Saldanadi and Fenchuganj gas fields for exploration.
Gas production from the BAPEX-developed gas field was initiated in July 2001 with the start of gas production from the Saldanadi gas field.
Gas production from Saldanadi and Fenchuganj is now mere 28 mmcfd.
Since then the BAPEX explored a number of gas fields owned by Bangladesh Gas Fields Company Ltd (BGFCL) and Sylhet Gas Fields Ltd (SGFL) and initiated gas production.
BAPEX was also awarded two onshore gas blocks - block 8 and block 11 - solely to explore and produce gas.